We don't have a dell outlet in Canada, and computers are more expensive here, but prices for individual parts tend to (on average) be cheaper, so it is easy to build you own system here. You can't get a nice dell here for under $800

It isn't actually a store, it's their online outlet:

outlet.dell.com

I'm coming north next time I build another desktop for myself if the prices are better component-wise. It's a racket down here.

__________________
"Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you"
Ralph Waldo Emerson

jawert, how do you start your builds?
my DH is a wanna be techie I think.
I wanted a newer, faster system for a specific game so he went and bought a stupid slow, cheap but had room for extras tower and spent more on the vc then he did on the tower, then ripped out the sucky mem and doubled it with new thingys.
It is way better than what I had before, but I think there is room for improvement.

__________________
Women are angels, and when someone breaks our wings . . .
We simply continue to fly . . .On a broomstick.
We are flexible like that.

I usually start my builds by looking at motherboards, I generally run Asus, Tyan or Gigabyte, although lately I wouldn't recommend Gigabyte - too many USB issues. It depends on if you want to run a Pentium processor or an AMD one, I've used both for heavyduty gaming, and both have run well - the AMD better, and now that they've strengthened the chip itself, they're less prone to heat and fracture issues. The mobo and processor are critical, you have to have a combination that work together, and often times you can go midrange on the processor (high end board tho), save yourself some immediate cash and be able to put in a faster processor later. After that, look at what vid card you want, AGP or PCI-E - personally I tend to use PCI-E cards, but that's just my preference. Always get a card with 256MB of RAM or higher, 128MB is ok, but a lot of newer games simply won't run as well on them. 1GB of RAM always, and the type of motherboard you go with will dictate what type of RAM you use. Most boards have good onboard sound, tho many ppl will swap that out but it isn't crucial that you do so, just good practice if you're doing any kind of movie editing, music creation, etc. Hope this helps

__________________
"Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you"
Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you check out Canadacomputers.com, you can see that the prices are quit cheap in comparison to some US stores. The problem here with premade systems is that they are all made in the US and shipped here, so they jack up the prices!! Plus, it's impossible for us to buy in the US because with shipping, the exchange rate, and taxes, it almost doubles the price!!

I'd be willing to eat the shipping for anyone willing to send me Tim's I know what you mean though, it seems kind of insane that the prices are so ridiculously bad for you guys for premade systems and components here are just as bad.

__________________
"Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you"
Ralph Waldo Emerson

I usually start my builds by looking at motherboards, I generally run Asus, Tyan or Gigabyte, although lately I wouldn't recommend Gigabyte - too many USB issues. It depends on if you want to run a Pentium processor or an AMD one, I've used both for heavyduty gaming, and both have run well - the AMD better, and now that they've strengthened the chip itself, they're less prone to heat and fracture issues. The mobo and processor are critical, you have to have a combination that work together, and often times you can go midrange on the processor (high end board tho), save yourself some immediate cash and be able to put in a faster processor later. After that, look at what vid card you want, AGP or PCI-E - personally I tend to use PCI-E cards, but that's just my preference. Always get a card with 256MB of RAM or higher, 128MB is ok, but a lot of newer games simply won't run as well on them. 1GB of RAM always, and the type of motherboard you go with will dictate what type of RAM you use. Most boards have good onboard sound, tho many ppl will swap that out but it isn't crucial that you do so, just good practice if you're doing any kind of movie editing, music creation, etc. Hope this helps

That pretty much sums it up. Although I would definitely recommend Asus! Also get a fast SATA (serial ATA) harddrive, because your harddrive is the slowest component in your PC of often limits you to how fast your PC runs and responds. So even if you have the newest, craziest CPUs with a million GB of RAM, if you have a slow HDD, your PC is still going to be slow :sad:

ATI video cards are more for video/video editing type applications, while nVidia are more for gaming. And I also agree, get at least 1GB of RAM!

__________________
"The internet: where men are men, women are men, and little girls are FBI agents" -read it somewhere...

I'm going to be building my first gaming system in the new year. Can't wait. I am hoping to get some deals on some parts on Boxing day, like moniter, case, and maybe a hard drive. I will wait until I get my bonus in feb to get the rest. Now I know where to go if I need extra advise!!